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Saturday, May 11, 2019

Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

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When I took up the post of Training and Systems Manager with the British Council in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2003, little did I know that it would result in the proposal for this publication, or better still that the proposal would be accepted. The rest, as they say, is history. Prior to this post my experience of using computers in English Language Teaching (ELT) had been somewhat limited. I had first used them as a teacher in 1997 when I had access to a computer room with an internet connection and a limited number of CD-ROMs. I used them for extension activities to complement my face-to-face sessions by providing the students with additional controlled practice of the grammar or vocabulary that had just been presented.This experience piqued my interest in using computers for language teaching and learning and so I read articles and books on computer-assisted language learning (CALL) in an attempt to find practical suggestions for their successful integration and usage. I also attended courses on information and communications technology (ICT) in ELT, as it was then referred to, in my quest for knowledge. This interest and limited amount of experience and knowledge did not, however, adequately prepare me for my role as Training and Systems Manager in which I ‘inherited’ a blended learning course that was being used to teach English to military personnel in the armed forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was also the first time that I had heard the term ‘blended learning’ and I have to say, initially, I was sceptical about its longevity; how wrong I was.